Direct, Concise and Persuasive

You’re on the fast track to success with your home care agency, which you started in your living room a year and half ago, and now has grown to include an army of 22 caregivers that services a 50-mile coverage radius around your new office building. You’re making a decent profit and – even more importantly – you’re making a difference in the lives of elderly residents and their families.

Now it’s time to expand – time to spread your reach into families and neighborhoods that need your help, but don’t yet know your number. In short, it’s time for some marketing mailings and collateral.

Of course you could call a professional to craft the material for you, but why go through all the trouble? We all had to write book reports in high school, right? How hard can it be to throw a few paragraphs together and dash out some letters? Plus you know your own business, right?

Many companies make that assumption, and unfortunately, many of those companies (that were only trying to save costs) discover that they’ve wasted money on written material that was confusing, hard to read – and ultimately – impotent.

Why go with a professional team that includes a copywriter?

The truth is, there is more to writing that meets the eye – or the page – and that’s particularly true of business writing. Marketing material is vastly different from book reports – or even a novel – in this respect: the ultimate goal of marketing material is to persuade the reader to do something. It wants them to buy a product. It wants them to call for a free estimate, visit a Web site or become a client of the business in question. And, for home care especially, because the service is so personal and happens unexpectedly, the message is different than messages for other items or other services.

1) Professional copywriters understand the power of language. Regardless of how you may feel about former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a commentator on one of the 24-hour news networks noted that her speech on Monday, in which she handed over the reigns of Alaska to its next governor, was far superior to the speech she gave a few weeks ago when she first announced her resignation.

Why? For one thing, she seemed confused and agitated in the first speech. But this time, she hit a home run, according to the commentator, because she seemed to understand “the power of language.” Her use of alliteration in phrases like “dizzying debt,” he said, was much more potent than saying “we’re spending too much money.” This time, she was direct, concise and persuasive.

That’s the difference a good copywriter can make. Copywriters who understand the power of language know how to wield it effectively. They can use tools like alliteration, similes, personification, aphorisms, assonance, irony, euphemisms, oxymorons, humor, sarcasm, poetry and the cold, hard facts to tug at the emotions of the reader and win them over.

2) Professional copywriters understand the value of SEO. Search Engine Optimization, typically referred to as SEO, comes into play when drafting marketing material for the online arena. It’s the practice of formatting text and Web pages so that the Web page is not only quick and easy to find, but also appears at or near the top of a Web search.

Good professional copywriters know how to craft online content for SEO. They know how to use various tools such as Google AdWords to identify key words that users are searching for and incorporate those words into the online content.

“He must understand current online advertisement strategy and the techniques that allow receiving high rankings on your Web site,” writes Peter Finers for Articlesbase.com. “He also should know how [to] develop [a] highly efficient marketing program that will advertise the site and gain promotion of it online.”

3) Copywriters know people. Good copywriters aren’t just good wordsmiths. They also know what to do with those words once they’re written. They have relationships with the media, so they can get your story in front of the limelight. When you need brochures, direct mailings and other printed media, they can recommend the best commercial printers in the area – and they may be able to set you up with a good deal. A good copywriter will have relationships with Web designers, photographers, video production companies, radio and television station and others.

At corecubed, we’re in the fulfillment business. We fulfill the copywriting, marketing and branding needs of home care and home health care companies across the U.S. One way we do that is through our careconnect monthly e-newsletter program. Careconnect is the perfect way for your home care or home health agency to reach its clients at the touchpoint of today: their e-mail Inbox! Our careconnect e-newsletters focus on topics important to them, such as respite care, Alzheimer’s disease, fall prevention and crisis management. To learn more, call us at (800) 370-6580, ext. 3, or e-mail us at connect@corecubed.com.